


Scenes From a Life on the Road

by alessandralee



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Rock Band, F/F, F/M, Female Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-08-21
Updated: 2014-08-21
Packaged: 2018-02-14 03:42:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,142
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2176704
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alessandralee/pseuds/alessandralee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Interconnecting stories following the band Canary's Cry (Laurel, Sara, Felicity, & Thea) on their adventures on and off the road.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [valkyrierising](https://archiveofourown.org/users/valkyrierising/gifts).



> Just so you're all aware, chapters will not necessarily be posted in chronological order. I will try to keep track of chronological order in the notes of each chapter.

"Thank god, I need to pee," Thea exclaimed as they turned into the parking lot.

She was out of the van and sprinting through the diner’s doors before Sara could even turn the van off.

Laurel calmly exited the passenger door and walked around back to make sure the lock on their trailer was still secure, leaving Sara to wake Felicity up with a light shake of her shoulders.

"Wake up, Felicity. We’re stopping for food."

Readjusting her glasses and tugging down on the hem of her dress, Felicity climbed out of her row of seats and followed Sara into the diner, with Laurel bringing up the rear.

The waitress was waiting at the door when they walked in, probably tipped off by Thea’s sprint to the bathroom. Calmly, she walked them to a large booth in the back of the dining room.

"So," Felicity asked as the thumbed through her thick menu, "how far are we from Blüdhaven?"

"A little over 2 hours," Laurel replied, not looking up from her own menu.

"And when do we have to be at the venue?"

"Soundcheck is at 4, show starts at 9."

"That means I can get a full night’s sleep for once," Felicity sighed happily.

"Full morning’s sleep," Thea corrected as she slid into the booth.

Their waitress quickly appeared at their table.

"Can I get you all something to drink. Tea or coffee?"

"Coffee," Laurel practically pleaded. Normally the level-headed and professional one, she was secretly a wreck when not caffeinated properly.

Thea and Felicity also ordered coffee. Sara opted for tea with lemon.

"How’s your throat?" Laurel asked her, as the waitress went to pour their drinks.

"Fine, I’d just like to get some actual sleep tonight. I don’t need the caffeine keeping me from a few hours of well-deserved rest."

The waitress reappeared with their beverages and took their food orders. The four women slipped into silence and they drank.

"Are we playing the Foundry tonight?" Thea broke the silence.

"No, some new place called the Bird’s Nest. I hear they’ve got a much better sound system," Laurel replied.

"And who exactly did you hear it from?" Thea teased. "Could it be your Blüdhaven booty call? What’s his name again?"

"She won’t tell us, remember? Just like she won’t let us meet him. She afraid we’ll ask embarrassing questions." Felicity’s eyebrows rose suggestively to make sure everyone understood exactly what kind of questions she meant.

"I guess we’ll just have to keep referring to him as The Acrobat," Thea shrugged.

"I wish I hadn’t mentioned that," Laurel rolled her eyes good-naturedly.

"I don’t know. I think the fact that he’s very flexible is an important detail to share with friends," Felicity commented and Laurel blushed.

Fortunately, their waitress returned with their food, forcing Thea and Felicity from torturing Laurel any further.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not entirely sure about what pairings I'm going for with this fic. So far I have Laurel/Dick Grayson, and probably Sara/Nyssa. But I'm still not sure where I'm going to go with Felicity or Thea, romantically.


	2. Chapter 2

"Shit, shit, shit, shit," Laurel mutters under her breath as the van rolls to a stop.

Thea, whose turn it is to drive, bangs her head lightly against the steering wheel.

The unexpected stop makes Felicity look up from her laptop and out the window. 

"This is not Starling," she remarks as she pulls an earbud out of her ear. Laurel can make out the pounding bass of whatever she’s been listening to.

Sara snoozes on in the backseat. She and Thea traded positions less than an hour ago, and it would take way more than this to wake her from her much needed sleep.

Laurel glances as the GPS stuck to the window between her and Felicity.

"No, this is an hour outside of Starling. At three in the morning. With god know’s what wrong with the van."

Felicity takes this as a cue to grab the flashlight stashed under her seat and get out of the car. By the time she’s lifted the hood of the van, Laurel and Thea have joined her. She hands the flashlight to Thea, who dutifully points it at the car so Felicity can poke around.

They’re all silent as Felicity looks the car over. Laurel scrolls through the contacts in her phone for someone to come bail them out. They’re only an hour from home but they can’t just leave the trailer, and all their equipment, lying around all night. Her father would probably know someone who could help, but the schedule he’d sent her at the beginning of the week indicated that he was working late tonight. She didn’t want to bother him. They could figure it out on their own.

She was startled from her thoughts by the sound of Felicity slamming the hood of the car.

"What’s the verdict?" Thea asks.

"Not a freaking clue," Felicity said with a shrug. "As far as I can tell, everything’s in working order."

"Except for the whole no longer running thing," Thea pointed out.

Laurel sighed. That left them with one option.

"I’ll call my brother," Thea volunteered, already pulling her phone out of the back pocket of her tight black jeans.

"Don’t call Oliver," Laurel said, glancing into the car at Sara and then scrolling through her phone again.

There had to be someone else they could call. Someone who wasn’t in the middle of an off period in his on-again-off-again relationship with her sister. 

"Ollie’s in Russia at some conference. I’m calling Tommy."

"Fine," Laurel acquiesced, even though Tommy Merlyn was on the the last people she wanted to see.

She’d gone to great lengths to avoid seeing too much of him in the year since she’d decided to drop out (temporarily withdraw, technically) of law school and try playing bass full time. He’d wanted to stay together, volunteered to fly out and see her whenever he had the time. But Laurel knew that he needed to devote that time to the business he’d just inherited.

So she’d ended things.

They’d seen each other a few times since then. He’d fly out to see Thea play, and Laurel would make sure she was extra busy dealing with the venue or ordering more t-shirts.

And when she couldn’t avoid him, she just avoided being alone with him. And slowly, things were becoming less awkward.

But it was hard to avoid awkward when calling someone to pick you up on the side of a highway at three o’clock in the morning.

So while Thea placed their distress call to her brother, Laurel took the opportunity to wake Sara up. She was going to need full reinforcements.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Takes place between chapters 1 and 2, the morning/afternoon after chapter 1.

When Sara rolls out of bed just before noon, Felicity and Thea are still out cold in the other bed. The blinds are shut tight and dark, but she can make out a note sitting next to her on Laurel’s pillow. Careful not to wake anyone, Sara grabs and it and heads for the bathroom, where she can turn a light on to read it.

_Meeting up with a friend. Be back for a late lunch before soundcheck. –Laurel_

Usually Laurel’s notes are a bit more detailed than that. As the daughters of a cap, Sara and her sister were taught not to go out in strange cities without telling someone exactly where they were going.

In this case though, Sara’s pretty sure Laurel’s being vague in hopes of avoiding a full inquisition from Thea regarding who she’s spending time with.

It won’t work.

In the bedroom, Sara can hear the ding of her text messaging tone. It’s probably Laurel, fully aware that Sara’s pretty much incapable of sleeping past noon, no matter when she goes to bed.

Fumbling back through the darkness, Sara picks her phone up from the nightstand it’s been charging on.

_Lunch at 2? Diner 3 blocks from motel?_

She responds saying she’ll make sure The and Felicity are ready in time and then settles back into her bed with her laptop and headphones. She’d downloaded some tv shows at the venue last night; she can probably squeeze and episode in before she has to wake her friends up.

————

An hour later, Thea and Felicity are up and dressed and ready to face the day. Or at least they’re ready to hunt down some coffee and food.

Felicity says she knows the diner Laurel was talking about, so they follow her out of their room and down the street after a quick stop to make sure the van and trailer are still locked up properly.

They’re two blocks down the street and Sara can make out the unlit neon diner sign when something else catches Felicity’s eye.

“Hey, we don’t have to meet Laurel for another,” she pulls her phone from her bag and checks the time, “46 minutes. Can we stop here quickly?”

Here is an empty looking record store.

“But coffee,” Thea protests weakly. She’s in desperate need of caffeine, but she knows that while most of Felicity’s vices are digital, trying to get between her and a record store she’s set her mind on is nearly impossible. She just doesn’t have the energy for it.

“Fifteen minutes, I swear,” Felicity promises, already heading for the door.

Sara and Thea can only follow.

Felicity bypasses the new releases in favor of a section at the back of the store marked “Used.” Thea takes a seat on a table half full of old CDs and Sara situates herself leaning on the other side of it. They make light conversation about where exactly Felicity plans to store her ever-growing vinyl collection, even narrating the animated conversation she seems to be having with the store’s only employee.

Contrary to her promises, Felicity’s been browsing for half an hour with no signs of stopping. Thea’s starting to doze off and Sara’s checking her phone for the umpteenth time when a door across the store opens.

Sara recognizes her sister standing in the doorway, although her head’s angled back into whatever room she’s coming out of. A pair of arms wrap around Laurel’s waist and pull in. Sara still can’t see Laurel’s face but she assumes it’s currently attached to owner of those arms. At the lips.

Lazily, she turns around and finally enters the record store, still not aware of her bandmates watching.

“You know you’ve got another 15 minutes, right? And it takes maybe two to get to the diner,” a male voice asks loud enough that Sara can hear. She still can’t see who it belongs to.

“As tempting as it would be to go back upstairs with you for thirteen minutes, I need to be the first one there to avoid nosy questions,” Laurel replies.

Thea gives Sara a mock-offended look, mouthing the word “rude.”

“We don’t have to go upstairs,” the male voice suggests. Sara can now make out a head of black hair over Laurel’s shoulder.

She’s sure Laurel has some sort of witty reply in mind, but at that moment she finally notices that they’re not alone. And she freezes in place.

“I’d rather not watch that,” Felicity pipes up, abandoning the albums in her hand to join Thea and Sara.

Laurel’s companion finally steps completely out from behind the doorway, and Sara can see that he’s slightly taller than Laurel in her flats, and he’s muscular but still slim. He looks a little confused, but Laurel finally pulls it together enough to introduce him.

“Dick, this is Felicity, Thea, and my sister Sara. Guys, this is Dick.”

Thea snorts at his name. If Dick notices, he doesn’t react. Felicity crosses the room to greet him and the others follow suit.

“So Dick,” Felicity asks, “what do you do for a living?”

“I run the philanthropy and outreach arm for WayneCorp.”

“Isn’t that based in Gotham?” Felicity asks.

Sara’s pretty sure Felicity knows this from her favorite non-musical hobby, hacking into corporate computer systems just to prove that she can.

“Yes, I split my time between here and Gotham.”

“Felicity nods, unsure of what to say next, and Thea takes over the conversation.

“So what have you been up to today?” she asks innocently.

“Just catching up,” Laurel responds quickly, a faint blush creeping up her cheeks.

“Your shirt isn’t button correctly and you have sex hair,” Thea’s tone changes from innocent to blunt.

Dick’s blue eyes widen and Laurel’s blush deepens considerably.

In most situations, Sara would enjoy seeing the usually composed Laurel off her game like this. But Laurel’s been so quiet about this relationship, and right now she looks completely panicked. So she intervenes.

“I don’t know about you, but I would kill for some coffee and food before soundcheck. We should really get going. It was nice meeting you Dick,” she says cheerfully as she wraps an arm around Thea’s shoulder and steers her forcefully towards the door. Felicity follows them.

After a quick kiss on the cheek, Laurel catches up with the, redoing the buttons on her shirt as she walks.


End file.
